A Change In History
Title: A Change In History
Pairing(s): HanChul (main), QMi, KangTeuk
Genre(s): Romance, sci-fi, angst, time travel AU
Length: 2638 words
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Han Geng lives in the fourth dimension. Heechul lives in the third.
Inspiration(s): I have always wanted to write a story about time travel and about the fourth dimension.
```
Han Geng’s favorite time period in life was the Middle Ages in the high mountainous region of Scotland. There was something surreally peaceful about standing on the summit of some immense mountain, with low population density and refreshing unpolluted air that left you lightheaded when inhaled. Then there was the view-oh the view! Han Geng would spend half a day trekking to the top of the cliff just to see that expansive grassland and neighboring forest with his own eyes, and each time it was worth every step. It was all green and blue with the occasional grey from rocks, the most beautiful colors of nature. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Peace.
He loved it, oh how he loved it! He could spend a lifetime just standing there, watching the tide rise and fall sporadically, watching as the squawking birds soared above the landscape in small white clusters. He did that before, in fact, quite literally. He just watched the scenery around him gradually change as ten years, twenty years, thirty years pass.
Han Geng lived in the fourth dimension: time as humanity knew it was a tangible thing for him and he adjusted it as he pleased. One moment he would be in the thirtieth century, observing as plague, war, and famine led to a worldwide apocalypse; the other moment he would be in the late nineteenth century in Paris, sitting in on a concert featuring virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt. He knew life before man, how Homo sapiens developed, how our present society came to be, and what the future would bring-he practically knew everything about life itself. Han Geng would have liked to think that he represented every religious deity in all of mankind (the Christians’ God Almighty, the Muslims’ Allah, the Buddhists’ Buddha, and so on), but he scrapped the idea when he imagined the faces on the peoples’ if they ever found out that their god to whom they prayed was actually a scrawny guy with hardly any sense of leadership in his laidback personality. How ironic.
Besides, it was not as if he was the only one existing in the fourth dimension. There were millions of other 4D people, such as Kyuhyun and Leeteuk, his closest friends. Well, technically only Kyuhyun. Last time Han Geng heard of him, Leeteuk had jumped out of the fourth dimension to experience life on the third.
(“Curiosity got to him, I guess,” Han Geng remarked like it was no big deal as he watched his friend merge into the dimension below and marvel over everything down on Earth. “He’ll be fine.”
Kyuhyun was more cynical, shaking his head in disapproval. “Curiosity killed the cat. Besides, I doubt that he was only inquisitive about ‘life’ over there. I mean, we can experience the third dimension anytime we want. It’s just that the people down there cannot see us, not to mention talk to us. I mean, we make up what they call time, and they are unable to see time as a concrete object.”
“Obviously. So?”
The raven-haired boy had a pensive finger on his mouth. “He was watching this undercover policeman named Kangin. He watched him throughout his whole life, really, ever since the day he was conceived. Caught him replaying his unjustified death by a car explosion several times, by the way. I have a feeling that he replayed Kangin’s life and jumped into the third dimension just as he was about to enter the vehicle with the time bomb planted in it.”
“So he was trying to save him?” Han Geng asked, eyes widening. “But that’s impossible. Their fates and their destinies are fixed. They are laid before us right now, and not even Leeteuk can change that.”
“Just watch.”
And they did. Leeteuk really did save Kangin’s life by pulling him out of the way in time before the explosion, and Han Geng watched in amazement as several parts of the future slowly altered: Kangin’s bloody death and its grief-stricken aftereffects were replaced with a long and blissful life forever beside his beautiful “wingless angel”. They became engaged within three months of their first meeting; they adopted two children, two beautiful boys, both of whom were raised up with undying love and undivided attention; and they spent every night together, whispering sweet things into the other’s ears. The ex-policeman died in his husband’s arms at the age of seventy-six; Leeteuk died five days later with a smile on his face.
“Oh my god,” Han Geng whispered in astonishment as he witnessed a change in history for the first time in his life.
“Told you,” Kyuhyun shrugged, smirking smugly.)
Though Han Geng was happy for his friend, he personally could not understand his decision. In the fourth dimension, you were everything a third-dimensional creature was with the added bonus of being able to see time, along with the fact that you had the capability of manipulating time in whatever way you wished. In the third, you came and went like a fleeting thought; you were just an accessory that came to life one day and then ceased to exist later on. In other words, you were ephemeral in the third dimension, and Han Geng wanted anything except to become forgotten.
```
Kangin and Leeteuk’s two adopted sons were handsome creatures, and they coped even after their parents’ deaths. The younger one, Zhou Mi, was the son of a prisoner of war who was orphaned at the age of eight when both of his parents were beaten to death on the outskirts of China. The doctors said that he was extremely lucky to have survived the ordeal, especially after a bout of scarlet fever and a severe case of tuberculosis, plus the fact that he had to watch as his parents took in their last breaths. He was physically (but not mentally) recovering at the hospital when the adoption papers were signed, and Leeteuk made it his own personal goal to rid him of his depression. Heechul, on the other hand, was a total nutcase-loud, obnoxious, assertive, irrational, you name it-with hardly any sense of reasonableness. He was twelve when Leeteuk found him, and had already developed a reputation for himself as the world’s most unadoptable child; each time some ill-fated couple decided to adopt him, he would have driven them crazy within a week, leading to him being sent back to the orphanage with a pleased grin on his face. Heechul tried the same thing in Kangin’s household, but soon found that he actually liked the middleclass couple who were not too mean, not too nice, not too sweet, not too strict. “Besides,” he admitted one day, “Zhou Mi needs me to cheer him up; he’s such an emo kid without me, you know.” The adoption center was just glad to be rid of him.
Usually the fourth dimension population did not bother digging into the lives of people living in the third, but Han Geng and Kyuhyun tacitly decided to observe as the lives of these two adopted brothers unfolded, half because of personal curiosity, and half because Leeteuk would have wanted somebody to watch over them anyways.
Zhou Mi ended up becoming an undercover policeman to emulate his father, while Heechul wanted nothing to do with this ‘emulating business’ and instead hit it big in Hollywood. They were the legendary duo in their neighborhood, being both well-educated and stable financially. Yet, both had stressful occupations, and it was pitiful seeing them working so hard in the confines of their lifestyle, at least to Han Geng. After all, Zhou Mi came home every day with new bruises all over his thin worn-out body while Heechul had to deal with the increasing pressure that the film directors were putting on him such as diets, diets, and more diets. It was alright at first, but tolerance could only hold for so long in the third dimension. Eventually, they were both drinking themselves to nothingness until a twenty-two-year-old Zhou Mi died in a flurry of gunfire and Heechul committed suicide by jumping off a bridge soon after.
Kyuhyun and Han Geng just stood there, watching as a funeral procession occurred for the two brothers, and the taller of the two could not help but feel a twinge of sadness in his usually calm self. They were so young-too young, much too young.
“Sad story,” Kyuhyun commented lightly. “It’s too bad Leeteuk didn’t see this coming.”
Han Geng only nodded as he tried to decipher this lost feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Yah. Too bad.”
Nobody remembered the legendary duo three weeks after their deaths.
```
Han Geng replayed Heechul’s life so many times that he had begun to lost count. He replayed the evening he managed to shoot down one of his former adopters’ glass chandelier with only an elastic band, ending in a heated lecture and then a trip back to the orphanage. He fast-forwarded to the day Kangin taught him to ride his first bike (and last, since he was never the athletic type). He fast-forwarded again to the time he started dating a beautiful actress just for show business and nothing else-grueling days planning out fake dates at places where paparazzi were sure to find them. Eventually, Han Geng realized that the overtly obnoxious Heechul was actually a lost child who wanted love and support from somebody he could depend on, and thus after his parents’ deaths, he was in such an emotional disarray that Zhou Mi was only able to partially help him through the situation-until his death, that is. ‘He doesn’t deserve that,’ Han Geng gritted his teeth as he watched Heechul kiss his fake girlfriend with a straight face that miraculously did not hold a grimace. ‘He deserves so much more than that. So much more.’ It took him everything he had not to vomit at the sight of Heechul jumping off of the Vincent Thomas Bridge to the cold waters below, clutching a picture of Zhou Mi in his left hand and a photo of his parents in his right. ‘I’m just a piece of shit’ was the last thought running through Heechul’s head before he disappeared under the surface, bubbles of oxygen escaping through his mouth. Overwhelmed with grief, Han Geng clenched his jaw and paid no attention to the pain of his fingernails digging into his palms.
“We have to do something,” he deadpanned to his friend.
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes that had dark protruding circles underneath them. “About what?”
“We have to help Heechul and Zhou Mi. They don’t deserve this.”
“We can’t do anything about it.”
The taller of the two glared indignantly. “But we can’t exactly stand here and watch as they obliterate themselves! Kyuhyun, Mimi was twenty-two. Twenty-two! He was supposed to die when he was old and wrinkly and ready!” He did not mention it, but Han Geng knew that Kyuhyun had replayed Zhou Mi’s life as many times as he had Heechul’s. In the fourth dimension, there were no secrets since thoughts went hand in hand with time, so he knew that whenever Kyuhyun saw the first bullet hit the lanky man square in the chest, he would abruptly turn away, muffling a sob of anguish into his fist.
A tear ran down his friend’s cheek and a faint sniffle was heard. “Geng, I’m sorry, but there is nothing we can do,” Kyuhyun cried, voice cracking at the end. “History is fixed, and unless we jump into the third dimension like Leeteuk before us, there is absolutely nothing we can do. And who knows what that will bring?”
Han Geng pressed his lips together, and in a flash, he was back in the Middle Ages in the high mountainous region of Scotland, blinking rapidly. It was there where he shed his first tear in his whole eternally immortal life. He had never cried before, and the liquid substance escaping his eyes felt foreign on his skin, complimenting the heavy sorrow sitting in the middle of his heart.
Han Geng knew that he had fallen too hard, too deep, too late, to turn back. His choice was made, and he was gone before Kyuhyun could stop him.
```
Heechul dropped the phone he was holding and blinked slowly, ignoring the monotonous “Hello? Hello…? Mr. Kim?” coming from the speaker. His most precious smiley Zhou Mi, dead? As in, not coming back? Not there for him anymore? Then he scoffed. ‘Of course,’ he thought bitterly. ‘Mimi must have gotten tired of putting up with me, just like father and mother did. Typical.’ The funny thing was, he did not blame them one bit. Heechul knew that he was a lot more than a mouthful: he was tactless, unconventional, unpredictable, and everything that nobody wanted in a human. ‘I’m just a piece of shit,’ he concluded. ‘A piece of shit with only a pretty face as redemption.’ That was what hate sites said about him anyways.
He mechanically grabbed his coat, slid into his shoes, put on a pair of sunglasses, and slipped into his car, expertly maneuvering around the paparazzi crowding the outside of his apartment. His cellphone rang, and he took one look at the caller ID before throwing it out the car window, taking pleasure in watching the vehicle behind him trample the blasted appliance beyond repair. His manager informing him of yet another main role in the upcoming movie, no doubt. Heechul was tired of that, he really was.
A bridge came into sight and he parked his car at the closest McDonalds, deciding to walk the last ten minutes. He wanted to cry, desperately, but tears were not enough to express his grief over his treasured brother who meant everything to him. His eyes were dead and dry as he awkwardly clambered onto the ledge, hands slackly gripping the rail. Freedom-that was all he wanted. He let his fingers loosen one by one, inhaling deeply, before letting go altogether. ‘I’m a piece of shit,’ he thought.
“NO!”
Suddenly Heechul felt himself being pulled back into another man’s arms, and the breath was knocked out of him from the force of the impact. He growled furiously. “What the hell!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs, using all of his energy to push out of the tight embrace, in vain. “Let go of me, you bastard!”
The arms around his thin frame tightened despite the punches thrown at the taller man’s back. “Don’t do it, Heechul!”
The actor tensed. He was sure that he had disguised himself well enough that even his most avid fans would not recognize him. “C-Creeper!” he yelled frantically. “Are you like a stalker or something? Do you even know who I am?!”
The stranger did not answer, and instead kept whispering incoherent sentences into his much-too-thin neck. “Don’t jump, Heechul, please!”
The redhead’s nostrils flared and fury took over him. “Why the hell did you think I would jump?! Do you really think that I look that weak to commit suicide?! Do I look like a guy who would end his own life because he can’t fucking deal with it?! I-I was just admiring the goddamn scenery, you crazy-ass buffoon!”
Heechul did not see the smile that came across the stranger’s face, nor the lone teardrop of happiness that fell down his cheek.
“My name is Han Geng,” his savior said, pulling back to stare affectionately at the effeminate man.
“Who cares?!” Heechul screeched, emotionally unstable and physically unable to pull away from Han Geng’s warm embrace.
Han Geng only laughed and ruffled his hair fondly, ignoring the actor’s enraged protests about how long he spent at the hairdresser’s that morning.
```
Zhou Mi turned up in front of Heechul’s apartment five days later, Kyuhyun in tow.
Pairing(s): HanChul (main), QMi, KangTeuk
Genre(s): Romance, sci-fi, angst, time travel AU
Length: 2638 words
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Han Geng lives in the fourth dimension. Heechul lives in the third.
Inspiration(s): I have always wanted to write a story about time travel and about the fourth dimension.
```
Han Geng’s favorite time period in life was the Middle Ages in the high mountainous region of Scotland. There was something surreally peaceful about standing on the summit of some immense mountain, with low population density and refreshing unpolluted air that left you lightheaded when inhaled. Then there was the view-oh the view! Han Geng would spend half a day trekking to the top of the cliff just to see that expansive grassland and neighboring forest with his own eyes, and each time it was worth every step. It was all green and blue with the occasional grey from rocks, the most beautiful colors of nature. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Peace.
He loved it, oh how he loved it! He could spend a lifetime just standing there, watching the tide rise and fall sporadically, watching as the squawking birds soared above the landscape in small white clusters. He did that before, in fact, quite literally. He just watched the scenery around him gradually change as ten years, twenty years, thirty years pass.
Han Geng lived in the fourth dimension: time as humanity knew it was a tangible thing for him and he adjusted it as he pleased. One moment he would be in the thirtieth century, observing as plague, war, and famine led to a worldwide apocalypse; the other moment he would be in the late nineteenth century in Paris, sitting in on a concert featuring virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt. He knew life before man, how Homo sapiens developed, how our present society came to be, and what the future would bring-he practically knew everything about life itself. Han Geng would have liked to think that he represented every religious deity in all of mankind (the Christians’ God Almighty, the Muslims’ Allah, the Buddhists’ Buddha, and so on), but he scrapped the idea when he imagined the faces on the peoples’ if they ever found out that their god to whom they prayed was actually a scrawny guy with hardly any sense of leadership in his laidback personality. How ironic.
Besides, it was not as if he was the only one existing in the fourth dimension. There were millions of other 4D people, such as Kyuhyun and Leeteuk, his closest friends. Well, technically only Kyuhyun. Last time Han Geng heard of him, Leeteuk had jumped out of the fourth dimension to experience life on the third.
(“Curiosity got to him, I guess,” Han Geng remarked like it was no big deal as he watched his friend merge into the dimension below and marvel over everything down on Earth. “He’ll be fine.”
Kyuhyun was more cynical, shaking his head in disapproval. “Curiosity killed the cat. Besides, I doubt that he was only inquisitive about ‘life’ over there. I mean, we can experience the third dimension anytime we want. It’s just that the people down there cannot see us, not to mention talk to us. I mean, we make up what they call time, and they are unable to see time as a concrete object.”
“Obviously. So?”
The raven-haired boy had a pensive finger on his mouth. “He was watching this undercover policeman named Kangin. He watched him throughout his whole life, really, ever since the day he was conceived. Caught him replaying his unjustified death by a car explosion several times, by the way. I have a feeling that he replayed Kangin’s life and jumped into the third dimension just as he was about to enter the vehicle with the time bomb planted in it.”
“So he was trying to save him?” Han Geng asked, eyes widening. “But that’s impossible. Their fates and their destinies are fixed. They are laid before us right now, and not even Leeteuk can change that.”
“Just watch.”
And they did. Leeteuk really did save Kangin’s life by pulling him out of the way in time before the explosion, and Han Geng watched in amazement as several parts of the future slowly altered: Kangin’s bloody death and its grief-stricken aftereffects were replaced with a long and blissful life forever beside his beautiful “wingless angel”. They became engaged within three months of their first meeting; they adopted two children, two beautiful boys, both of whom were raised up with undying love and undivided attention; and they spent every night together, whispering sweet things into the other’s ears. The ex-policeman died in his husband’s arms at the age of seventy-six; Leeteuk died five days later with a smile on his face.
“Oh my god,” Han Geng whispered in astonishment as he witnessed a change in history for the first time in his life.
“Told you,” Kyuhyun shrugged, smirking smugly.)
Though Han Geng was happy for his friend, he personally could not understand his decision. In the fourth dimension, you were everything a third-dimensional creature was with the added bonus of being able to see time, along with the fact that you had the capability of manipulating time in whatever way you wished. In the third, you came and went like a fleeting thought; you were just an accessory that came to life one day and then ceased to exist later on. In other words, you were ephemeral in the third dimension, and Han Geng wanted anything except to become forgotten.
```
Kangin and Leeteuk’s two adopted sons were handsome creatures, and they coped even after their parents’ deaths. The younger one, Zhou Mi, was the son of a prisoner of war who was orphaned at the age of eight when both of his parents were beaten to death on the outskirts of China. The doctors said that he was extremely lucky to have survived the ordeal, especially after a bout of scarlet fever and a severe case of tuberculosis, plus the fact that he had to watch as his parents took in their last breaths. He was physically (but not mentally) recovering at the hospital when the adoption papers were signed, and Leeteuk made it his own personal goal to rid him of his depression. Heechul, on the other hand, was a total nutcase-loud, obnoxious, assertive, irrational, you name it-with hardly any sense of reasonableness. He was twelve when Leeteuk found him, and had already developed a reputation for himself as the world’s most unadoptable child; each time some ill-fated couple decided to adopt him, he would have driven them crazy within a week, leading to him being sent back to the orphanage with a pleased grin on his face. Heechul tried the same thing in Kangin’s household, but soon found that he actually liked the middleclass couple who were not too mean, not too nice, not too sweet, not too strict. “Besides,” he admitted one day, “Zhou Mi needs me to cheer him up; he’s such an emo kid without me, you know.” The adoption center was just glad to be rid of him.
Usually the fourth dimension population did not bother digging into the lives of people living in the third, but Han Geng and Kyuhyun tacitly decided to observe as the lives of these two adopted brothers unfolded, half because of personal curiosity, and half because Leeteuk would have wanted somebody to watch over them anyways.
Zhou Mi ended up becoming an undercover policeman to emulate his father, while Heechul wanted nothing to do with this ‘emulating business’ and instead hit it big in Hollywood. They were the legendary duo in their neighborhood, being both well-educated and stable financially. Yet, both had stressful occupations, and it was pitiful seeing them working so hard in the confines of their lifestyle, at least to Han Geng. After all, Zhou Mi came home every day with new bruises all over his thin worn-out body while Heechul had to deal with the increasing pressure that the film directors were putting on him such as diets, diets, and more diets. It was alright at first, but tolerance could only hold for so long in the third dimension. Eventually, they were both drinking themselves to nothingness until a twenty-two-year-old Zhou Mi died in a flurry of gunfire and Heechul committed suicide by jumping off a bridge soon after.
Kyuhyun and Han Geng just stood there, watching as a funeral procession occurred for the two brothers, and the taller of the two could not help but feel a twinge of sadness in his usually calm self. They were so young-too young, much too young.
“Sad story,” Kyuhyun commented lightly. “It’s too bad Leeteuk didn’t see this coming.”
Han Geng only nodded as he tried to decipher this lost feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Yah. Too bad.”
Nobody remembered the legendary duo three weeks after their deaths.
```
Han Geng replayed Heechul’s life so many times that he had begun to lost count. He replayed the evening he managed to shoot down one of his former adopters’ glass chandelier with only an elastic band, ending in a heated lecture and then a trip back to the orphanage. He fast-forwarded to the day Kangin taught him to ride his first bike (and last, since he was never the athletic type). He fast-forwarded again to the time he started dating a beautiful actress just for show business and nothing else-grueling days planning out fake dates at places where paparazzi were sure to find them. Eventually, Han Geng realized that the overtly obnoxious Heechul was actually a lost child who wanted love and support from somebody he could depend on, and thus after his parents’ deaths, he was in such an emotional disarray that Zhou Mi was only able to partially help him through the situation-until his death, that is. ‘He doesn’t deserve that,’ Han Geng gritted his teeth as he watched Heechul kiss his fake girlfriend with a straight face that miraculously did not hold a grimace. ‘He deserves so much more than that. So much more.’ It took him everything he had not to vomit at the sight of Heechul jumping off of the Vincent Thomas Bridge to the cold waters below, clutching a picture of Zhou Mi in his left hand and a photo of his parents in his right. ‘I’m just a piece of shit’ was the last thought running through Heechul’s head before he disappeared under the surface, bubbles of oxygen escaping through his mouth. Overwhelmed with grief, Han Geng clenched his jaw and paid no attention to the pain of his fingernails digging into his palms.
“We have to do something,” he deadpanned to his friend.
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes that had dark protruding circles underneath them. “About what?”
“We have to help Heechul and Zhou Mi. They don’t deserve this.”
“We can’t do anything about it.”
The taller of the two glared indignantly. “But we can’t exactly stand here and watch as they obliterate themselves! Kyuhyun, Mimi was twenty-two. Twenty-two! He was supposed to die when he was old and wrinkly and ready!” He did not mention it, but Han Geng knew that Kyuhyun had replayed Zhou Mi’s life as many times as he had Heechul’s. In the fourth dimension, there were no secrets since thoughts went hand in hand with time, so he knew that whenever Kyuhyun saw the first bullet hit the lanky man square in the chest, he would abruptly turn away, muffling a sob of anguish into his fist.
A tear ran down his friend’s cheek and a faint sniffle was heard. “Geng, I’m sorry, but there is nothing we can do,” Kyuhyun cried, voice cracking at the end. “History is fixed, and unless we jump into the third dimension like Leeteuk before us, there is absolutely nothing we can do. And who knows what that will bring?”
Han Geng pressed his lips together, and in a flash, he was back in the Middle Ages in the high mountainous region of Scotland, blinking rapidly. It was there where he shed his first tear in his whole eternally immortal life. He had never cried before, and the liquid substance escaping his eyes felt foreign on his skin, complimenting the heavy sorrow sitting in the middle of his heart.
Han Geng knew that he had fallen too hard, too deep, too late, to turn back. His choice was made, and he was gone before Kyuhyun could stop him.
```
Heechul dropped the phone he was holding and blinked slowly, ignoring the monotonous “Hello? Hello…? Mr. Kim?” coming from the speaker. His most precious smiley Zhou Mi, dead? As in, not coming back? Not there for him anymore? Then he scoffed. ‘Of course,’ he thought bitterly. ‘Mimi must have gotten tired of putting up with me, just like father and mother did. Typical.’ The funny thing was, he did not blame them one bit. Heechul knew that he was a lot more than a mouthful: he was tactless, unconventional, unpredictable, and everything that nobody wanted in a human. ‘I’m just a piece of shit,’ he concluded. ‘A piece of shit with only a pretty face as redemption.’ That was what hate sites said about him anyways.
He mechanically grabbed his coat, slid into his shoes, put on a pair of sunglasses, and slipped into his car, expertly maneuvering around the paparazzi crowding the outside of his apartment. His cellphone rang, and he took one look at the caller ID before throwing it out the car window, taking pleasure in watching the vehicle behind him trample the blasted appliance beyond repair. His manager informing him of yet another main role in the upcoming movie, no doubt. Heechul was tired of that, he really was.
A bridge came into sight and he parked his car at the closest McDonalds, deciding to walk the last ten minutes. He wanted to cry, desperately, but tears were not enough to express his grief over his treasured brother who meant everything to him. His eyes were dead and dry as he awkwardly clambered onto the ledge, hands slackly gripping the rail. Freedom-that was all he wanted. He let his fingers loosen one by one, inhaling deeply, before letting go altogether. ‘I’m a piece of shit,’ he thought.
“NO!”
Suddenly Heechul felt himself being pulled back into another man’s arms, and the breath was knocked out of him from the force of the impact. He growled furiously. “What the hell!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs, using all of his energy to push out of the tight embrace, in vain. “Let go of me, you bastard!”
The arms around his thin frame tightened despite the punches thrown at the taller man’s back. “Don’t do it, Heechul!”
The actor tensed. He was sure that he had disguised himself well enough that even his most avid fans would not recognize him. “C-Creeper!” he yelled frantically. “Are you like a stalker or something? Do you even know who I am?!”
The stranger did not answer, and instead kept whispering incoherent sentences into his much-too-thin neck. “Don’t jump, Heechul, please!”
The redhead’s nostrils flared and fury took over him. “Why the hell did you think I would jump?! Do you really think that I look that weak to commit suicide?! Do I look like a guy who would end his own life because he can’t fucking deal with it?! I-I was just admiring the goddamn scenery, you crazy-ass buffoon!”
Heechul did not see the smile that came across the stranger’s face, nor the lone teardrop of happiness that fell down his cheek.
“My name is Han Geng,” his savior said, pulling back to stare affectionately at the effeminate man.
“Who cares?!” Heechul screeched, emotionally unstable and physically unable to pull away from Han Geng’s warm embrace.
Han Geng only laughed and ruffled his hair fondly, ignoring the actor’s enraged protests about how long he spent at the hairdresser’s that morning.
```
Zhou Mi turned up in front of Heechul’s apartment five days later, Kyuhyun in tow.